Immediate Prayers, Bead Rattles, ect. needed

easy child just called me. She is leaving the concert (60 miles away) and heading home. Her friend John will drive (I am sure they have her jeep).

I had told her I did not want her to go to this because of the blizzard warnings being posted for tonight through Monday. However, she paid $80 for the ticket and her friends Samantha and John were also determined not to throw out those tickets. I wish that concert would have been canceled.

I don't know if the freeway is closed or not. I am sure she will call me in about 15 - 20 minutes if they are.

When she called 10 minutes ago, I asked her what they were going to do. She asked me what they should do but I refused to take on that responsibility. Don't refuse my advise to stay out of a dangerous situation and then ask me what you should do. I left it up to her.

I don't think they could get a room anyway at this hour. The smart travelers would have already taken up all the rooms seeking shelter from the blizzard. Travel tomorrow will be worse so they would probably have to stay two nights if they stay.

My neighbor states she believes there is light snow tonight. Accumulation will not come until tomorrow. I hope that is true. If they don't have accumulation on the roads, it will be easier. However, there will be whiteouts off and on.

Thank you everyone! Wow, this board really is powerful. They beat the storm home. Everything I saw on the news channel and t.v. stated blizzard warnings, difficult roads. They must not have been too bad for her to arrive in town within an hour. easy child also said she will not be taking her friend Samantha home - She will stay at our house. Another good thing since she lives about 15 - 20 miles out of town.

I was thinking about you today, wondering how things went for the concert. I agree, it should have been cancelled under the circumstances.

It even made our news in Australia, all the houses with power out because of the ice storms. Thousands, our news said today.

I am so glad she got home safely, I'll tell husband. He was worried too.

Our experience of heavy snow in NZ last year gave us a fraction of an experience of what it must be like for you all. Of course we didn't experience ice storm, just a lot of snow with whiteout and road closures. We also got stranded.

For your daughter, this will have been a valuable learning experience. I am so glad she survived to learn from this.

Marg- That storm you saw is actually east of me: Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and eastern NY state. Icing did the damage there. A blizzard is a different beast altogether: drastically dropping temperatures, strong winds, and snow. There doesn't need to be a lot of snow because the winds move whatever snow there is and produces very little visibilities. Power goes out, individuals are trapped roadside or in their homes with dangerously dropping temperatures. It's an incredibly serious situation...

husband & I saw a documentary on ice storms in the US. Until then we hadn't realised just how bad it can get. Of course we should have known, as scientifically-minded people. But somehow, probably because we never experience it this cold here in Australia, we just didn't fathom what it would be like. The TV program spelt it all out clearly, logically, scientifically - which made it all the scarier.

We have photos on our computer, of how beautiful an ice storm can be. After seeing that program we realised to the core, just how dangerous also.

We can get cyclones blowing through (OK, you call them hurricanes) and they do a lot of damage to services (power, water, buildings etc). Wind and rain. But add in ice, and cold...
Brrr!

I'll happily stay here safely with the funnelweb spiders, the taipans, the snakes under the water tank...

Today all major roads North, South, and West of us were closed. They pulled the snow plows since the snow would fill in faster than they could clear. Very strong recommendations to stay off the road.

Some people in the middle of white outs have been known to drive off the road and deep into fields without evening knowing they left the road. The deep ditches on the freeway would prevent that. My fears are snowplows plowing into you if you do pull over and if you did end up in the ditch those snowplows could dump tons of snow on you.

Then, the wind chills are so low (40 degrees below zero) so you can not feel like you are warm. You can freeze to death if not found in time.

The cities (Minneapolis/St Paul, MN) South of us did get freezing rain. That is very dangerous as vehicles skid all over the place.

easy child said Dominos (local pizza delivery business) closed today. I said "Good! No one should be ordering any food to be delivered today. Not fair to put delivery people's lives in danger." With today's technology of bad weather warnings, everyone should have been able to prepare and have home stocked with food. In the rare event that wasn't possible, then use whatever services there are to help - hopefully you have good neighbors to lean on.

Many business did close today. I would expect the only people expected to get to work would be direct care staff at our many group homes, nursing homes, hospitals, ER. In our neck of the wood, we have lots of good people willing to take each other's shifts if they can get in. Our facility usually sets up a storm shelter for our employees who get stranded at work. I don't know if it has been set up for this year yet!

easy child wanted to leave earlier. I think her friends talked her out of it. She came in the house swearing at me. She must think the weather is my fault also? I tell you, if I believed even a fraction of her opinion of me I would be lower than low in the self esteem area.

difficult child just went over to the neighbor's house (two doors away). I called the mom to let her know the boys were on their way and asked that someone call me when difficult child heads back home.

easy child and her friend are making sugar cookies.

Schools will most likely be 2 hours late tomorrow if not canceled (we are voting for canceling though after today I am not so sure).

Oh geez, Andy. And this is hitting me tonight. Glad your daugher is safe, but I'm not looking forward to it. Yuck. To make matters worse it kind of drizzled today so we have wet roads that are going to be covered in snow/ice. Lovely.